Political Theology and Modernity. Carl Schmitt and Post-Foundational Political Thought.

Abstract

Despite his conservative roots and his personal engagement with the National Socialist Party, Carl Schmitt and his work have been recovered by democratic theory and post-foundational political thought as a possible source for thinking about politics in a radical way. Is Schmitt useful for a post-traditional thinking? In this paper I will argue that only through a critical review of the concept of political theology – and its relationship to modernity – is it possible to give an answer to that question. Political theology means, in Schmitt’s thought, simultaneously the challenge of the modern search for political autonomy and the recognition of the radical break with tradition. In this regard, I will try to restore the ambiguous and controversial concept in order to delimit the possibilities of the appropriation of Schmitt’s work for a radical political thought.